Merry Christmas, Lucas!
by Connor the speling pro
Summary: What Zelda thinks is going to be a routine meeting with Princess Peach ends up taking a wild turn...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, everyone. Happy Christmas Eve! :)**

 **The name's Connor (in case you can't tell by my username), and I mostly write Earthbound Fanfiction, but I'm here today with the first installment of this twoshot. The next part will come tomorrow. To be honest, I'm not** ** _super_** **confident about this chapter, but if I release it any later then it will lose its effect, you know?**

 **But yeah, Any reviews are greatly appreciated (unless you're going to rage mindlessly or something like that haha). This is my first SSB fic, so... um, I don't know what I was going to put after that. I guess go easy on me? :D**

 **Okay, I'll shut up and give you the story.**

* * *

Zelda couldn't put into words how much she _hated_ these meetings with Princess Peach.

"Oh, you'll totally get along," everyone said. "You're both princesses, so you must have a lot in common."

Yeah right.

Couldn't these people see how _vapid_ the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom really was? Well… maybe not. After all, princesses were supposed to act a little shallow. It didn't surprise her that most people lapped up Peach's personality like nothing was wrong.

Maybe that was why she hated Peach so much.

So why in Hyrule was Zelda sitting in an overly cushioned chair across from Peach right now? Why had she agreed to this?

 _I guess I'm just used to doing what I'm told,_ Zelda though with an internal sigh. _I should take more initiative over my own life. Just because Link and Mario think that I should hang out with Peach doesn't mean that it's a good idea._

Zelda took a look around the room. She thought that her chair was on the squishy side, but everything else seemed even more cushioned. The couch, the other chairs… even one of the _tables._ And it was all pink. Disgusting, hot pink. Zelda was pretty sure that her eyes would start bleeding if she looked at the room for much longer.

"Oh, Zelda!" Peach exclaimed, her eyes widening in alarm. She dropped the pink parasol that she had been holding up until that point, sending it clattering on the ground. "I just remembered something!"

Zelda had to force herself not to plug her ears. Why was Peach's voice so shrill?

"What?" Zelda asked, as politely as she could manage.

"I forgot the tea!" Peach exclaimed, taking an excruciating eight seconds to bend down and pick her stupid umbrella off the ground. "How could I possibly have forgotten something so important?"

Zelda didn't trust herself to reply to that.

"Toad!" Peach shouted. "Some tea for both of us! What kind do you want, Zelda?"

 _I hate tea,_ Zelda thought.

"Peach flavored," Zelda answered, flashing a smirk.

"Oh, how sweet!" Peach said, her eyes lighting up. "You're choosing peach flavored tea after me because we have a special connection!"

 _No,_ Zelda thought. _I want to feel like I'm consuming part of your essence._

"Yeah," Zelda muttered. "Let's go with that."

"Aren't we such good friends, Zelda?" Peach asked, her beady eyes making Zelda feel guilty about her earlier thoughts.

"Uh… sure," Zelda said.

"Yay!" Peach exclaimed. "I think that we're going to be best friends forever!"

 _Somebody, kill me now,_ Zelda thought, any semblance of remorse vaporizing into thin air.

After a suspiciously short amount of time, a toad came into the room, bringing two cups of tea.

"Here I am, your highness," the toad said, giving one cup of tea to Peach and the other to Zelda.

"Oh!" Peach exclaimed, almost swooning. "This is my _favorite_ kind of tea, Toad. How did you know?"

 _I don't know,_ Zelda thought sarcastically. _Maybe it's because you drink the exact same kind of tea with every meal?_

"I'm honored that you like it, Princess," the toad said. Zelda noted the lack of awkwardness in the toad's posture.

 _I guess he must be used to this,_ she thought.

"Did you really need to bring servants here from the Mushroom Kingdom?" Zelda asked as the toad walked out of the room.

"Ah, you know how easy it is to bring people into this dimensional rift," Peach said, waving a hand dismissively. "And what am I supposed to do? I need my tea and cupcakes!"

 _Does she know how whiny she sounds?_ Zelda wondered.

"…It _is_ possible for you to learn how to make them on your own," Zelda pointed out. "I mean, you did learn how to fight in the Smash Bros arena when you came here. I'm sure that self-sustenance is easier than _that._ "

"Oh," Peach said, blinking her eyes in a rapid succession. "Did you say something?"

Zelda sighed.

"Never mind," she muttered.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Peach asked. "Ooh! I heard that Captain Falcon asked Samus out on a date again."

 _Whoop de do,_ Zelda thought flatly. _Seriously, that happens at least once a month._

"He should quit," Zelda said. "He knows that Samus is never going to say yes, but he keeps asking her anyway just to make her mad. It's disrespectful, frankly."

"Oh, let them have their fun," Peach said, giggling like a five-year old.

 _…The point is that it isn't fun for Samus,_ Zelda thought.

"Why don't we talk about something else?" Zelda asked, wanting to try out the whole "taking initiative" thing that she had resolved to improve just minutes earlier. "You know how I don't like to gossip about romantic relationships. Did you know that tomorrow is a special day on Lucas' and Ness' world? What's their planet called again… is it Earth?"

Peach nodded.

"I heard about that holiday too," she said, clapping her hands together. "And yes, it _is_ Earth. Look at you, studying other dimensions! I'm so proud of you, Zelda!"

 _…I honestly wouldn't mind dying right now._

"Well, tomorrow's a holiday called 'Christmas' for them," Zelda said. "So Ness went back to Earth to spend some time with his family."

"Aww," Peach said, twirling her pink parasol around. "That's nice. But Lucas is still here, though."

"He is?" Zelda asked. "Doesn't he have family to spend time with, too?"

"Oh, he does," Peach said with a vapid smile. "But he's choosing to stay here instead! That must mean that he likes us, right?"

 _So egotistical,_ Zelda thought. _She can't worry about Lucas because she's too busy thinking about how neat things are for her. I've never met someone who so thoroughly exemplifies the word "self-obsessed" before. She even puts Ganondorf to shame._

"There could be a problem!" Zelda exclaimed. "Maybe something's wrong with his family and he just doesn't want to tell us. You know how easily embarrassed kids can get about stuff like that."

 _Actually, she probably doesn't,_ Zelda realized.

"Something wrong?" Peach asked, cocking her head in mild interest. "What do you mean?"

Zelda had to resist the urge to slap Peach in the face.

"Think about it!" she exclaimed. "Maybe he's on bad terms with his family and he doesn't have anyone else." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Maybe he's alone."

Zelda squeezed her eyes shut. She knew how _that_ felt all too well.

"…" Peach's eyes flashed with… something. It almost seemed like she was _thinking,_ but Zelda knew that wasn't physically possible.

"Peach?" Zelda asked.

"You know," Peach said, her voice losing its shrill quality. She looked down at the floor and shook her head. "It amazes me how must people don't even realize that."

Peach stood up, and Zelda watched in a mixture of awe and horror as her body posture _shifted._ While before she had sat daintily with her arms in her lap, she now stood up straight, her confident pose seeming strangely natural. Instead of making herself seem small and harmless like she normally did, her reserved posture carried an air of confidence. She seemed like someone who would bend under stress rather than break.

 _My gods…_ Zelda thought, her jaw dropping wide open. _She seems like… an actual person!_

And her face… whereas before it had contained the emotional depth of a plastic sheet, it now displayed an array of thoughts and feelings that ran deeper than anyone else Zelda had seen. Each twitch of a muscle made her face seem _fuller,_ somehow. It was as if she had come to life from a painting.

Was this the _real_ Princess Peach?

"Heh," Peach said, turning to Zelda. A melancholy smirk popped up onto her face. "You seem surprised that changing my posture and voice can make me a completely different person. But isn't that what you did in your world, Sheik?"

 _How can her voice sound so resolute yet so defeated?_ Zelda wondered.

Looking deep into her eyes, Zelda found a mixture of worry and pain. But Peach managed to smile anyways.

Perhaps there was a lesson in that.

"It's been a while since anyone has called me Sheik," Zelda said carefully.

"But aren't you more Sheik than Zelda?" Peach asked, her eyes that normally flitted around so carelessly now gluing themselves to Zelda's face. "Sure, you put on a dress and a friendly face because society expects princesses to act that way, but isn't Sheik closer to who you really are?"

Zelda stood up.

"I… guess so," she said.

"We share that trait, Sheik," Peach said softly. "This right here is me. The person who I show to the world is just a character."

"Why?" Zelda asked. "Why not just… be yourself? I mean, I only changed my identity to hide myself when Ganondorf was trying to hunt me down."

"Two reasons," Peach said. "First, it's… actually pretty funny. I don't know what I get more fun out of, people like Mario who I can manipulate with my 'personality' or people like you who I can annoy."

"Glad to know that I'm entertaining," Zelda muttered.

"I'm sorry," Peach said with a guilty smile, "I guess I have an evil streak."

"…So what's the second reason?" Zelda asked, not knowing how to respond to that.

"People underestimate me," Peach said. "If shit goes down, then nobody expects me to be the competent one… but I am."

"You shouldn't swear," Zelda said. "Nintendo guidelines-"

"Fuck the guidelines," Peach said, flashing a smirk. "It's not like anyone's going to see us talking."

"I suppose," Zelda said, feeling the urge once again to move on. "So… I guess you secretly know how to fight like I do?"

"No," Peach said. "Not more than what I learned here, which isn't really applicable. Spacetime gets really weird in the arenas, which allows for some pretty crazy shit."

"Why not?" Zelda asked. "It's important to know how to defend yourself."

"Not in my world," Peach said with a snort. "Have you _seen_ it? Nobody's dangerous. Bowser tries to be dangerous, but he isn't. Since I'm a princess, there are a lot of things that I need to learn about. Economics, history, foreign relations, public health… and _court etiquette._ " Peach sneered. "It kind of bugs me how princesses are expected to know how to fight so that we don't seem dainty. Knowing how to protect yourself is cool, but warrior princesses simply aren't practical to a nation such as mine."

 _How in the world did we go from talking about tea to talking about gender roles?_ Zelda thought.

"Now that I've introduced myself," Peach said with a surprisingly sincere smile, "We should get to the point."

"Point?" asked Zelda. "There's a point?"

"Remember?" Peach asked. "We were talking about Lucas and how he might have family issues."

"Oh," Zelda said. "That."

"Yeah," Peach said. "Anyways, I figured that you would probably be the first one to inquire about him. You've always worry about little kids."

"How did you know that?" Zelda asked.

"Uh, I have eyes," Peach said. "Really, Sheik; It's obvious."

 _Dang,_ Zelda thought. _She's more perceptive than I thought._

"Could it be, perhaps, that you suffered so much as a child that you don't want any of today's children to know the pain that you did?" Peach asked.

 _Way more perceptive,_ Zelda revised.

"…"

"I thought so," Peach said with an empathetic smile. "Since you seem to care about Lucas, you should go have a chat with him."

"Uh…" Zelda said. "By myself?"

"Sure," Peach said. "Why not?"

 _Because he's really creepy,_ Zelda thought.

"I'm not sure if I should…" Zelda said.

"Oh," Peach said, her pitch returning to soprano and her posture returning to dainty. "In that case, Zelda…"

"All right, all right!" Zelda said. "I'll talk to him! Just… please don't act like you normally do. This new Peach is way better."

Peach let out a hearty laugh.

"That was easy," she said. "But it has to be tomorrow, all right? I'm trying to convince Lucas to spend Christmas with his family, and I need to do some stuff first. I should be done by seven or eight tomorrow morning… try to talk to him before then, okay?"

"How long have you been helping out Lucas?" Zelda asked.

"I've been _trying_ to help for a few months," Peach answered with a sigh. "The kid's stubborn. I don't know if he'll trust anyone ever again, honestly."

A chill ran down Zelda's spine.

"How old is he?" Zelda asked. "15? 14?"

"13," Peach answered. "13 and already knows too much about the multiverse's uglier side. You really _should_ talk to him, Sheik. It will give you some nice perspective about your own life, hard as it was. He sure gave _me_ some perspective."

"…All right," Zelda said. "I always try to perceive the world from other viewpoints. I'll see what Lucas has to say."

"Good luck," Peach said. "And thanks. If meeting the real me was a little jarring for you, then you might want to mentally prepare yourself before you talk to Lucas. Just a thought."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Zelda said flatly.

"I'm teasing you a little," Peach said with a playful smirk. "But only a little. Lucas is probably going to make you feel uncomfortable, but I think that it will be really good for you to talk to him. You're the only one here besides me who can even stand to listen to the kid. Just make sure to talk to him tomorrow, all right?"

"Okay," Zelda said. "I'll try."

"Good," Peach said. "I'll meet you and Lucas soon. See you later, Sheik."

"All right," Zelda said, walking towards the exit of Peach's room. She opened the door, thankful that the grey hallways outside provided something to look at that wasn't pink. She turned back to face Peach. "By the way, my name is Zelda."

"Is that who you want to be when you talk to Lucas?" Peach asked with a knowing smile. "Who do you think will better connect to Lucas, the princess Zelda or the orphan Sheik?"

"…"

"Just some food for thought."

Zelda walked out and closed the door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, everyone! :) Here's the second part of my twoshot. Things get a little... dark for a Christmas fic, but that's part of the meaning that I mean to convey. As for if I succeeded... well, that's always up for debate. xD**

 **Anyways, Lucas is actually going to be in this chapter. I mean, I listed him as one of the main characters for this fic so I gotta follow through, right? :D His personality is a little... weird. You'll see what I mean if you don't fall asleep by the time that you finish reading this obnoxious AN. ;) Also, Peach's character was super hard for me. I tried to convey her strength, weakness, perceptiveness, and humor in less than 3k words last chapter, and this chapter reveals even more about her personality. ._. This is why I don't write short stories more haha. I want to do too much with the characters.**

 **Also, spoilers for Mother 3 (I probably shoulda said this somewhere earlier, huh?), and Ocarina of Time (does anyone care about that game's story?). By the way, Zelda in this fic is from OoT, so when she talks about her past... yeah, that's where it came from. You might have been able to tell cuz Sheik, but I just wanted to make that clear. :D**

 **And did I mention that this chapter gets dark? xD**

 **Well, Merry Christmas, everyone! :) I hope that everyone got good presents... and of course I hope that everyone is spending some quality time with their families as well. ;)**

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 **Review Responses:**

 **Shimo no ko:** Heh, thanks. :) I've been wanting to write a Zelda fic for a while, but I can't do it since any Link that I write is always super boring... so I guess this is the compromise. ;) And yeah, I took inspiration from the Sucks to be Weegie webcomic. I like to think that I kinda saw this creepy potential in Lucas on my own, but I guess I can't say for sure. Like always, I tried to make his character unique to me. :) Merry Christmas!

 **Ender2142:** Hi! :D Aw, thanks! I'm writing this response the night before I'm releasing this, but I _should_ be able to get it out pretty early... for me, it should still be morning. For you, I dunno. Merry Christmas! :D

* * *

 _Found him,_ Zelda thought.

Lucas sat next to a window that displayed a panoramic view of the city below the stadium tower where all of the fighters lived. Zelda cringed. Even though she knew that she couldn't fall, the world beyond the window made her realize just how high up she was. Because she spent all of her time cloistered in the stadium tower, Zelda tended to forget about the world outside.

She took a deep breath. She had survived for seven years while Ganondorf tried to hunt her down. She could face a stupid piece of glass.

She walked up to the window, pointedly ignoring the voice in her head that told her to run away. From up here, she could see the steel blanket of the world below. The metropolitan district stretched for miles, multiple stars overhead causing the steel landscape of buildings to shimmer. It looked so foreign to see a ground made of sharp grey instead of naturally chaotic green. She spotted tiny hovercrafts zipping around like insects, finding it difficult to believe that each one carried thousands of people like she had been told.

"Wow," Zelda whispered. "We're so high up that those people down there appear as dots."

"Those are clusters of people," Lucas said in a monotone, not bothering to turn his head and look at Zelda. "Do you know how you see 'stars' in the night sky? Some of those are superclusters, groups of stars so far away that even their combined light struggles to make it to the planet's surface. This is the same." Lucas paused. "Here, we physically cannot see the people below as individuals. We're celebrities and we put on games for them, but we'll never know who they are. It sometimes makes me sad that we're not allowed to mingle with them. We'll stay cooped up in this tower for an eternity, following rules dictated by an unknown being."

Zelda resisted the urge to take a step back. She had to let Lucas in, even if it made her uncomfortable. The two of them remained silent for minutes, looking out at the impossibly vast world outside the window.

"…I creep you out," Lucas finally said.

"N-No!" Zelda exclaimed. "Of course not!"

In one, mechanical motion, Lucas turned his head to face her. His eyes danced with madness; the cold smile on his face made Zelda shiver. Was this kid even… human?

"Don't lie," Lucas said. "It annoys me when people try to deceive each other, well-meaning or no."

"Fine," Zelda said, gritting her teeth. "You make me uncomfortable."

"Then why are you here?" Lucas asked, cocking his head. The action seemed too human to be genuine. "All of the others talk about me in hushed voices when they think I'm not listening. Why don't you do the same?"

"It's not nice to gossip about people," Zelda said.

"So you have something to say about me and you would rather say it to my face?" Lucas asked. "I would respect that, but I don't think that your motives are so pure."

"Do I need a motive for talking to someone?" Zelda asked.

"You need a motive for talking to someone who makes you uncomfortable," Lucas said, his icy smile widening.

 _I guess I should just tell him the truth,_ Zelda thought, feeling nauseous. _I don't think that I can keep up with this._

"Peach sent me here," she admitted. "She wanted me to see who you are… and she also wanted me to tell you to go home for Christmas."

"I suspected as much," Lucas said, turning his head to face the window once again. "…You're different from the others. I creep you out, but you're the only one besides her to feel pity for me. I only disgust the others. Even Ness…"

Zelda bit her lip. She wanted to say that the others cared about him too. She wanted to comfort him; she wanted to create a perfect little world for this child so that he would never again know pain.

But Lucas did say that he hated it when people tried to deceive each other.

"There's no point in judging you," Zelda said. "What good will it do?"

"I wish more people thought like you do," Lucas whispered. "Their mind intact enough to know that I'm creepy but their wisdom telling them that it won't do much good to toss blame around."

Zelda didn't know if Lucas intended the compliment to be flattering, but it only made her dig her teeth further into her lip. She was surprised that it hadn't started bleeding yet.

"So," Lucas said. "I'm bad at talking, but we can do that if you want. Peach did want you to know me, right?"

"Yeah," Zelda said. "How do you know her? I mean… you know… how do you know her as _her?_ "

"Her act is obvious," Lucas said, still gazing at the steel landscape outside the tower. "The only reason that people believe her is that they have expectations of what a princess _should_ be like." Lucas glanced down towards the ground. "And I've seen enough to shatter all expectations of _anything._ "

 _Okay,_ Zelda thought. _Not a happy start._

"Are you two… friends?" Zelda asked.

"No," Lucas answered. "Although I think that she wants us to be. She's trying to save me, even though it won't work. I've seen too much." Lucas spread his arms, gesturing towards the world outside of a window. " _This_ is what I fought so hard to avoid in my world. All of us arena fighters are either heroes or villains. I thought that I was the hero of mine, defending the natural world from strangulation by industrialism. I tore apart the world and built it anew so that we could live in connected communities, so that we could live alongside nature rather than above it. And then I see _this._ "

Zelda didn't know what to say to that.

"But that's not really the problem," Lucas said. "Once something is broken, you can't ever really fix it. You can only patch up what's wrong. People in my world still remember the machines and smoke. Some _desire_ the machines and smoke. I can't make everyone happy without using force."

"How does using force make people happy?" Zelda asked.

Lucas turned to Zelda, holding his hands an arm's length apart. A blue hexagon appeared between his hands, rotating like a hologram.

"…I have so much power," Lucas whispered. "Your magic is restricted by your gods, but my psionics are only limited by the barriers in my mind. And _everything_ in my mind is broken, including the barriers that prevent me from becoming godlike. It's… not a good feeling. You start to see people differently once you have the power to raze a city with a snap of your fingers."

"You're exaggerating," Zelda said. "There's _no_ _way_ that you can do that."

"I can hear the doubt in your voice," Lucas said. "Deep down, you do believe me." Lucas paused. "This power makes me wonder if I _should_ destroy everything and create my own little utopia. That's what Porky wanted, in a twisted way. That's what I tried to stop. What if he was right?"

"Okay," Zelda said. "I think that we need to back up a little."

"Because I'm insane?" Lucas asked. "I know that I am, and I'm not sure if it's a bad thing. The only reason insanity is considered weird or undesirable is that most of us aren't afflicted with it. I mean, if we _were_ all insane, would we even notice it?"

"I've never thought about that before," Zelda said. "And there's a reason why I haven't. You need to snap out of this, Lucas. You need to find something else to care about. Once you do, I think that you'll realize how silly this conversation is."

"And what makes you think that the state of _caring_ is righteous?" Lucas asked. "You're making assumptions based off of what you've been told. Your parents tell you to be nice, so you do that. Your parents tell you to share, so you do that. Your parents tell you that caring is good, so you believe them. But where did they learn that from? They learned it from their parents, who learned it from _their_ parents… and so on. Who's to say that the ancestors who first came up with these ideals were right?"

Zelda fumbled for a response. Lucas' argument was so messed up that she didn't know how to fight it.

"You're right," came a whisper from behind Zelda.

She turned around to see Peach in her confident yet reserved state. Her eyes were blue lakes that showed so much depth and understanding that she lacked (or appeared to lack) during her normal state of daintiness. She twirled some sort of locket around her hand.

"Thanks for meeting with Lucas, Sheik," Peach said. "Now you can probably see just how badly I want to get him back to his world for a couple of days."

"So," Lucas said, turning to face Peach. Zelda still couldn't look past his frenzied eyes and cold smile. "This was all part of your plan. But I've already told you. My world has hurt me too much. There's nothing left for me."

"How can a world do that to you?" Zelda asked. "I mean, I bear plenty of scars from my experiences, but I still go back every once in a while to relive old memories. What makes your situation different?"

"Asking instead of judging," Lucas said, shaking his head with a rueful smile. "Such a rare quality. I think that the best way for me to explain my situation is to relate it to yours. What scarred you the most from your life?"

Zelda shot a look at Peach, waiting for her approval.

"Don't look at me," Peach said. "I'm not your mom. Tell him if you want to. Don't tell him if you don't want to. It's that easy."

"…All right," Zelda said, turning back to Lucas. "The part of my life that still causes me a little trauma was seeing Ganondorf execute my parents. He was looking for me, so I had to stay hidden, but I still watched from the crowd. I felt that if my parents had to die, I should at least be there to watch it. It… just felt so _wrong,_ seeing their heads roll off of their bodies. The blood didn't even get to me, but their severed heads haunted me every night for years."

Lucas nodded as if Zelda had told a whimsical story about searching for bugs.

"Were you close to your parents?" he asked.

"No, not really," Zelda admitted.

"Can you imagine what it would be like if you _were_ close? If almost every waking moment was spent with them, and they were suddenly just… gone? Imagine that everything that you had ever known or done before felt empty because your parents were no longer with you."

Zelda gulped.

"I… can imagine that," Zelda said, putting a hand over her chest. "A world with only hollow actions. Nothing means anything anymore, because no matter what I do, it's not with _them_."

"Now," Lucas said, looking into Zelda's eyes as his irises flashed with fiery pain. "Imagine that they came back to life and tried to kill you."

The words washed over her like arrows. Zelda took a step back, drawing a shaky breath.

"Imagine if they looked the same, but there was nothing left inside of them," Lucas continued. "They try to slice your head off, but that isn't even what hurts. You expect some sort of reservation from them. A moment's hesitation, a twitch, _anything_ that signals that they might not want to wholeheartedly rip your beating heart out of your chest _._ But you get nothing. You stand there, knowing that you can't _bear_ hurt them anymore, but also knowing that you can't run. So you'll die if you don't kill them first. What would _you_ do in that situation, Zelda?"

"Please…" Zelda whispered, the image coming to life in her mind. "Stop."

"And imagine," Lucas said. "Imagine that they finally wake up and become _them_ again… and then they kill themselves. You were so close to getting them back, but they end up dying in your arms."

In that moment, Zelda could almost _feel_ someone she loved trying to kill her without hesitation, coming to their senses, and fading away into oblivion.

It chilled her more than seeing her parents die.

"Now that's a tragic story if I've ever heard one," Peach said, shaking her head sadly. How was that woman not quivering in her high heels? "Perhaps you would like something to remember that by?"

Peach jingled the locket in her hand. Lucas' eyes narrowed.

"What's inside there?" he asked.

"Let's just say that I've been doing a little worldhopping," Peach said. "New Tazmily is a bustling little town, and your father is doing quite well. He's concerned about you, Lucas."

"…" Lucas' expression was unreadable.

Peach walked up and handed Lucas the locket that she had been playing with earlier. The blond-haired boy opened it and his eyes widened. His jaw dropped as he sat there, stunned for a few seconds.

After that, he started shaking uncontrollably.

"Lucas!" Zelda shouted.

Tears started running down on Lucas' cheeks. He turned the locket around, revealing two pictures. One of them depicted a younger Lucas with a man and a woman, presumably his parents. Lucas wore a grin from ear to ear, looking like he was about to bound forward out of sheer excitement.

 _My gods,_ Zelda thought. _He was just like any other kid._

The second picture showed Lucas holding hands with another person who looked just like him, only this other boy had red hair instead of blond. The redhead looked like Lucas did in the last picture: confident and eager. Lucas seemed to hold back a bit, wearing a shy smile.

 _No…_ Zelda looked up at the scarred machine that Lucas had become. She looked back at the pictures.

How could he have turned from _that_ into _this?_

"The person holding Lucas' hand in that picture is named Claus," Peach whispered to Zelda. "They're twins, in case you can't tell. He went missing, got brainwashed, tried to kill Lucas, and eventually came to his senses and killed himself. All of the pointed questions he asked you came from his experiences with Claus."

 _My gods…_

"I…" Lucas stammered, his voice quivering like a leaf.

"What is it, Lucas?" Peach asked in a surprisingly mother-like tone.

"Get this away from me!" he shouted. "I… can't…"

He started sobbing.

"You knew!" he shouted. "You knew that this would hurt me! I… trusted… you…"

Zelda felt her heart crack into two. Why couldn't she do _anything_ to make this better?

"Why does this hurt you?" Peach asked. "Don't you want something to help you remember Claus and your mother?"

 _Wait,_ Zelda thought. _His mom is dead too? Geez._

"No!" Lucas shouted.

"Why not?" Peach asked. "I'm sure that Sheik here wants to remember her parents. It was painful losing them, but don't you want to remember the good times?"

"Every time that I remember," Lucas said through clenched teeth, tears streaming down his face. "It reminds me…"

"Reminds you of what?" Peach asked.

"…" Lucas turned away.

"Lucas?" Zelda asked softly. "You can tell us. I promise that we'll understand."

Something about Zelda's words seemed to placate Lucas. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. When he opened them, they no longer produced tears.

"It reminds me that I couldn't save them," Lucas whispered. "That's it, isn't it? That's what you wanted me to see? It's not the fact that they died that pains me the most. I was too weak to save them. _That's_ what really hurts."

"So why do you think that you can't bear to go back home?" Peach asked carefully.

"Because I'm scared of caring about it," Lucas said. "If I lose something that I care about, I feel weak. To avoid that feeling, I try not to care about anything at all. Heh… I really am pathetic, aren't I?"

"No," Zelda said, walking up to Lucas and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Look at me, Lucas."

Lucas complied, looking up at her. His eyes widened as he registered the intensity in her face.

"Why… why do you care about me, Zelda?" Lucas asked.

"Listen," Zelda said. "You're only 13, Lucas. You still have another 70 years left to live. Don't throw that away! Do you see yourself in those pictures? Maybe you don't want to be that person again, but don't you want to be more like him?"

"Why do you care?" Lucas repeated.

"Your father is still alive, right? You must have some people who care about you. Start with them. You can spend some time learning who you are, who you _want_ to be. That starts with going to your planet for Christmas. You need a little celebration to reforge your bonds."

"Why do you care about me?" Lucas asked for the third time.

"Because…" Zelda said. "Because I'm in the same position that you were when Claus tried to kill you. I see a machine in front of me, Lucas. I see someone cold enough to contemplate mass destructions. And I want to save you. I didn't know you before like you knew Claus, but I still want you to wake up." Zelda looked into Lucas' eyes. "Can you understand that?"

"…"

 _Oh no,_ Zelda said. _Was that too harsh?_

"…Okay," Lucas said.

Zelda blinked.

"W-What?" she asked.

"You make a good argument," he said with a shrug. "I should try to change into the person who I want to be. Since I don't know who that is right now, I should try to be everything and see what resonates with me. But… even more than that, you care. It makes me feel something. It makes me feel like how I did in these pictures. And you did it in a few seconds of talking. That's reason enough to make me think that I might be onto something. I'll go back to my world for a few days."

"Really?" Zelda asked.

Lucas flashed a smile. While still unnatural, it felt surprisingly warm.

"I guess you remind me of my mom," Lucas said. "Even though you're still a teenager, right? Either that or only a little older. I don't know if your way is right, but I'm willing to try it out. Is that good enough for you, Zelda?"

"Uh… yeah!" Zelda said. "Of course! I can't ask for anything more!"

"Thanks," Lucas said. "I'm… curious to see how this will turn out. I don't know if your empathy is the magical solution or a meaningless quirk, but I don't really have much to lose by trying things out your way. I'll… head over to the worldhopper right now. See you later, Zelda."

Lucas flashed another smile, a real one.

"Teleport gamma," he whispered.

The next second, he was gone. Zelda blinked, not quite able to understand how Lucas was able to reverse his attitude in a matter of seconds.

"Good job, Sheik!" Peach said, clapping her hands.

"Thanks," Zelda said, taking a second to catch her breath. "That was pretty intense. Did you… plan for all of that?"

"You give me too much credit," Peach said, waving her hand dismissively. "I brought you along because you're nicer than I am, but I didn't expect _that._ " She paused. "You heard about his… predisposition to blowing things up, right?"

"Yeah," Zelda said. "That's why I felt like I _have_ to save him. If I don't…" Zelda shivered.

"Well, it looks like your attempt was already more successful than anything I've done," Peach said. "And I'm glad that you convinced him to go back to his planet when you did. I think that he's going to realize that the locket that I gave him can't be legit since cameras didn't exist during that time."

"So how did you make it, then?" Zelda asked.

"Trade secret," Peach said, wagging her finger playfully.

 _…It looks like I affected more than just Lucas,_ Zelda thought. _I've never seen Peach this upbeat._

"Regardless," Peach said. "The _emotions_ of Lucas and his family in those pictures are real. That's what really matters. Just like how your emotion persuaded him when nothing else could have."

"I just hope that he stays on the path that we set him on," Zelda said. "It seems so easy for him to turn back."

"Either that or hope that he finds a better path than ours," Peach said with a shrug. "But even though he didn't make any miraculous changes, I really do feel like we jumped over the tallest hurdle. Now that he's considered your opinion, I think that he'll find it quite difficult to escape from."

 _I sure hope so,_ Zelda thought.

"Now," Peach said. "As much as I enjoy talking to you, I promised that I'd meet up with Mario in a few minutes. See you, Sheik!"

"When we meet again," Zelda said. "Will you be the shallow princess again?"

"Of course," Peach said with a devious smile. "After all, I have to keep up appearances. But when we're alone… I'll be me. You can tell that it's me if I use your real name."

"Sheik isn't my real name," Zelda said.

"Are you sure?" Peach asked. "Because I don't think that Princess Zelda in all of her regality convinced Lucas to head back home to his family."

 _She's said that before,_ Zelda thought. _And I don't know if it's true. Is Zelda just the face that I put on for the world to see?_

"Feel free to think that," Zelda said. "Anyways, I should probably be off as well. I need to train in the arena so that I can escape the dreaded low tier." Peach chuckled. "See you later, Peach!"

"See you later," Peach said. "And Merry Christmas."


End file.
